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Thursday, January 23, 2014

FIGHT CARD AND THE
FIGHTERJEREMY L.C. JONES, CO-EDITOR
OF THE JUST RELEASED CHARITY ANTHOLOGY FIGHT CARD PRESENTS: IRON HEAD AND OTHER
STORIES, GIVES US HIS TAKE ON THE PROJECT ...Fight Card Presents:
Iron Head and Other Stories is the first in a series of charity anthologies
from the Fight Card authors cooperative – a writers community featuring many of
today’s finest fictioneers, including Jory Sherman, Ryan McFadden, Mark Finn,
Troy D. Smith, Ed Greenwood,Jack
Badelaire, James Scott Bell, James Hopwood, Bowie V. Ibarra, and Matthew
Pizzolato. Compiled by Paul Bishop
and Jeremy L. C. Jones, 100% of the proceeds from these anthologies will go
directly to an author-in-need (in this case, revered western writer Jory
Sherman) or a literacy charity. Words on paper are the life blood of a
writer.The writers in this volume were
willing to bleed in order to give a transfusion to one of their own – and then
continue to bleed to give a transfusion to literacy charities in support of
that most precious of commodities ... readers.They are true fighters, every one ...FIGHT CARD AND THE FIGHTERJory Sherman is a fighter.He's been in the writing business all of his
adult life.He's been a poet, a
journalist, and a novelist.He’s penned
short stories, radio scripts, and autobiographical essays.In his memoir, he never flinches or
falters.He’s written horror,
action-adventure, and westerns, both adult and traditional.His publication numbers are high.Short stories? Over 50.Novels? Well past 500.On top of all his own writing, Jory has
helped out, directly and indirectly, more fellow writers than anyone knows.Jory Sherman is a fighter.If he’d been a boxer, he’d be at that part of
his career now where he was fighting full time and training up-and-comers on
the side.Yeah, he's been a rookie and
champ, but he's never been a ham and egger and he darn sure isn’t a tomato can.Great footwork.Good with his hands.A master out wide and a genius in close.Endurance, stamina, and courage to
spare.He’s a fighter.Always has been.Always will be.Within all of all his jobs and
roles – writer, painter, teacher, husband, soldier, and these days, recreational
fisherman – there's always been that one thing, that one truth: Jory Sherman is
a fighter...And his fighting spirit – his fight – is rooted in belief, belief in himself, in his characters, in language, in
storytelling.Lately, Jory's been sick.He also turned 81 in October of 2013.Every morning he wakes up and writes. "There is nothing to fear,"
he says in Master Course in Writing."All that you need will be given to you
through the magic process of writing."Writing is Jory Sherman’s equivalent of
the sweet science.Jory Sherman is a fighter, though he doesn't
box.He writes.And this anthology, ten rounds of two-fisted
FIGHT CARD action, is a testament to how inspiring a fighter Jory Sherman is.A boxer steps into the ring and tests
himself.A writer puts pen to paper or
fingers to keyboard.Call it a fight or
the drafting of a story or whatever you want.You put yourself to the test and you see who you are.If you're lucky – whether you’re a writer
or a boxer – you are never fully alone.You have your trainer there, your team, your fans, your community.Someone like Jory Sherman to lend a hand.But what if you are Jory Sherman?What if
you’re the guy who usually helps everyone else out?What do you do then?About six months ago, I asked Jory if
he'd ever written or had any interest in writing fight fiction and he told me a
few stories about going to boxing matches with his father as a child in
Denver.One of these childhood adventures led
to Iron Head.Jory wrote it fast,
while juggling two novel deadlines and at least three trips to the VA Hospital
per week.Once we had “Iron Head” in hand, Paul
Bishop and I set about finding stories to accompany it.We needed at least four of equal length,
roughly 6,000 words.Both of us sent out
feelers, asking writers we knew if they’d be willing to donate a fight story to
a Fight Card anthology.All proceeds, we
said, would go to Jory.Response was beyond enthusiastic."I love fight fiction!""I've always wanted to try a
boxing tale.""Anything for Jory.”We had a dozen commitments within 12
hours.Within a week we had enough commitments
for more than two full anthologies.Eventually, we had a roster for four boxing anthologies and at least one
Fight Card MMA anthology with plans to continue bi-monthly releases for as long
as there is interest.Not all of the anthologies will benefit
Jory Sherman.Some will benefit literacy
programs, literary organizations, or other authors in need.Fight
Card Presents:Iron Head & Other
Stories is the first and it was borne out of the generosity that Jory
Sherman inspired in others.As I said above, Jory has been ill
lately--very ill.There have been some
close calls.There have been near
misses, emergencies, medications, and hours and hours of dialysis.The medical bills are excruciating.Crippling.But a fighter doesn’t give up, and Jory
Sherman is a fighter.In one of my favorite scenes in this
book, a character awakens from a coma and says, “I dreamed about how to defeat
him.”He’s talking about the fighter who put
him in that coma.That’s the way to do
it: wake each day fighting.Never give
up.I hope you enjoy reading this book as
much as we enjoyed putting it together.Thank you for buying it and for helping out an author in need.I’d also like to thank the authors, all of
whom have been exceedingly generous and a real joy to work with.Jack Badelaire, James Scott Bell, Mark Finn,
Ed Greenwood, James Hopwood, Bowie V. Ibarra, Ryan McFadden, Matthew Pizzolato,
Troy D. Smith, and, of course, Jory Sherman, it’s great to have you on the Fight
Card team.Keep writing!Jeremy L. C. JonesBoiling Springs, SCJanuary, 2014

Tuesday, January 21, 2014

FIGHT CARD, CHARITY,
AND COMMUNITYWhat is community?Is it simply a geographic area where people group together while leading
separate lives?Is it a social network composed
of friends who like or comment while
committing nothing of themselves beyond a mouse click?Or is true community something stronger,
something deeper, something going beyond the individual into compassion and
caring for others in thought, effort, sacrifice, and service?When Mel Odom and I created the Fight Card mandate in 2010 (a series of monthly 25,000 word boxing novelettes ... short, sharp,
hard-punching stories inspired by the fight pulps of the '30s and '40s), we had
no idea we were creating a community.However, Fight Card quickly
took on a life of its own.“Build it and they will come,”was the call to action in the iconic
baseball novel Field Of Dreams by W.P.
Kinsella, but the same creative magic took over Fight Card ... We built a virtual boxing ring to which fighters,
writers, and readers have come.As of this writing, the Fight Card series has extended to thirty titles, with more in the
battered and scarred editorial dressing room waiting for their chance to duke
it out in publication.The Fight Card brand has extended to include
Fight Card MMA, Fight Card Now, Fight Card
Luchadores, Fight Card Sherlock
Holmes, and even Fight Card Romance.Experienced authors and critically acclaimed
newcomers have stepped into the Fight
Card ring, going the distance again and again – each delivering a unique,
fresh take on the familiar boxing tale of struggle and redemption.In the process, all of those involved – writers,
editors, publicists, readers, cover artists, etc. – have become a community, a
caring community.Fight Card transformed from a
publishing brand into a living, breathing, author
cooperative with each writer working off of his own Amazon platform for his/her
own Fight Card entry, while being
supported by the cooperative – covers, editorial, formatting, publicity,
podcasts, etc. – but also supporting the cooperative by furnishing back their
own talents in those and other areas.For me, Fight
Card has become a true joy.Every
day, I get to interact with writers, illustrators, and pulp aficionados from
literally around the world. Figuring out the time change for Skyping between
California and Australia, Spain, or Ireland regularly makes my head hurt. Plus, I’m having a blast bringing these great
stories to fruition by taking advantage of the ever-evolving e-book technology
to reach an audience in a manner not possible through traditional legacy
publishing.Still, while Fight Card has been on the cutting edge
of both the New Pulp and the publishing revolution, I felt we could do
more.Be more.Which brings us to this anthology.Part of a true community is giving back to
others.Six months ago, Jeremy L.C.
Jones asked me if I’d be interested in helping out an author-in-need by letting
him do a quick turnaround writing a Fight
Card book.I’d already been toying
with the idea of doing a Fight Card
anthology to benefit a literacy charity, but here Jeremy was opening a
different sort of door.Author-in-need might sound redundant.Aren’t all authors in need – in need of new
readers, more book sales, and a solid plot for their next book?But, this was different. This was need based
on health problems, family financial problems – needs that would crush the
creativity out of anyone, let alone an experience, revered, writer who, like so
many of the rest of us, works the typewriter trapeze without a safety net.Jeremy and I put out feelers to our Fight Card community and the response
was instantaneous.Without hesitation, a
large number of writers – some already part of the Fight Card team, others independent fighters happy to come into the
Fight Card fold – willingly offered
to write fight stories for not only our initial author-in-need charity effort, but enough to fill a schedule for three
other charity anthologies now scheduled for upcoming publication.Amazing.Words on paper are the life blood of a writer.Hemingway said, “There is nothing to
writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.” These writers
were willing to bleed in order to give a transfusion to one of their own – and
then continue to bleed to give a transfusion to literacy charities in support of that most precious of commodities ... readers.In Fight
Card Presents: Ironhead And Other Stories, ten writers (Jory Sherman, Ryan McFadden, Mark Finn, Troy
D. Smith, Ed Greenwood,Jack Badelaire,
James Scott Bell, James Hopwood, Bowie V. Ibarra, and Matthew Pizzolato, along
with cover artist Carl Yonder) take us into the squared circle against a
plethora of dangerous, hard-hitting, and deadly opponents – all in the name of
community.100% of the proceeds from these Fight Card anthologies go directly to
the designated author-in-need or
chosen literacy charity.There are no
monies taken for administrative costs or any other incidentals.This is what community is all about.I am humbled to be a part of it and honored
to work with not just the writers and artists represented in this volume, but also
in the others to come.In buying this anthology, you too are part of our
community, part of something larger ... part of going the distance ... of not
leaving those in need behind ...Keep punching!Paul BishopLos Angeles, January, 2014

FIGHT CARD UPDATE!The Fight Card team is excited to announce the release of our first
ever Fight Card CHARITY anthology. Part
of the Fight Card mandate as an
author’s cooperative is to give back to our community.This debut project, Fight Card Presents: Iron Head & Other Stories – Ten Rounds of
Fight Fiction for Charity, is the first step.Three other charity anthologies will follow
during the course of 2014.If you would
like to provide a story, please contact either myself or Jeremy L. C. Jones.One hundred percent of all
royalties from these anthologies will go directly to an author-in-need or a
literacy charity.Royalties from our
debut charity anthology will go directly to ailing western writer JORY SHERMAN, whose family has been
financially devastated by medical bills related to Jory’s illness. Jory is a
revered writer known primarily for his award winning westerns, but has also
written in many other genres.He has
also been a mentor and good friend to many other writers.Fight Card Presents: Iron
Head & Other Stories is a 60,000 word anthology of two-fisted action by authors from
multiple genres, There's Jack Badelaire, James Scott Bell, Mark Finn, Ed
Greenwood, James Hopwood, Bowie V. Ibarra, Ryan McFadden, Troy Smith, Matthew
Pizzolato, and Jory Sherman writing the title story. There's also a foreword by
Paul Bishop, an introduction by Jeremy L.C. Jones, and a cover by Carl Yonder. It is particularly
important to help us spread the word about this anthology via blogs and social
networks.Please help us make a
difference two dollars and one punch at a time!FIGHT CARD PRESENTS:
IRON HEAD & OTHER STORIESFight Card Presents:
Iron Head & Other Stories is the first in a series of charity anthologies
from the Fight Card authors cooperative – a writers community featuring many of
today’s finest fictioneers, including Jory Sherman, Ryan McFadden, Mark Finn,
Troy D. Smith, Ed Greenwood,Jack
Badelaire, James Scott Bell, James Hopwood, Bowie V. Ibarra, and Matthew
Pizzolato. Compiled by Paul Bishop
and Jeremy L. C. Jones, 100% of the proceeds from these anthologies will go
directly to an author-in-need (in this case, revered western writer Jory
Sherman) or a literacy charity. Words on paper are the life blood of a
writer.The writers in this volume were
willing to bleed in order to give a transfusion to one of their own – and then
continue to bleed to give a transfusion to literacy charities in support of
that most precious of commodities ... readers.They are true fighters, every one ...Much more coming from Fight Card in 2014 ... So, hang on and
...Keep punching!

Friday, January 10, 2014

FAST FIVE WITH SAM
HAWKENFIGHT CARD MMA: ROSIE THE RIPPER AUTHOR SAM HAWKEN (WRITING AS JACK
TUNNEY) GIVES A SHORT SHARP INTERVIEW ON PAUL D. BRAZILL’S BLOG, YOU WOULD SAY THAT, WOULDN'T YOU?Fight Card opens round
one of 2014 with a scorching Fight Card MMA entry, Rosie The Ripper, from
critically acclaimed writer Sam Hawken (writing as Jack Tunney).He is the author of The Dead Women Of Juárez,
Tequila Sunset, Juárez Dance, La Frontera, and the Camaro Espinoza novellas.Fight Card MMA: Rosie The Ripper is his first
Fight Card entry …The genesis of Rosie The Ripper was a little different than all the
other Fight Card entries since it started with a cover without a story.How did that work for you?I wrote in an essay
everyone can find on the Fight Card site (www.fightcardbooks.com) about how I’m
a very visual person, and what’s more I happen to be intensely interested in
women’s MMA.With the Rosie cover, the
two of these things collided and immediately I started thinking, “I need to
write this thing because it’s right up my alley.”The only problem I had was I couldn’t come up
with something that would fit the Fight Card format.It took me close to a year of ruminating on
that cover, coming back to it periodically, until I finally figured out how to
make it work.It was so easy in the end
that I’m not sure what took me so long.It helps that the cover (by Keith Birdsong) is great because you want a
great story to go along with it and that inspires you to keep trying. FOR THE FULL
INTERVIEW CLICK HERE

FIGHT
CARD MMA: ROSIE THE RIPPERBaltimore, 2014 ... Rosie Bratton is a
recovering alcoholic. Divorced, working a dead end job, and with a young
daughter she only sees on alternate weekends, her life is going nowhere.Her hopes hang on the outcome of a custody
battle to regain primary custody of her daughter, and the vague possibility
things might get better together.When circumstances turn bleak, Rosie
nearly retreats into the bottle, but her sponsor has a solution. Felix was once
a mixed martial arts contender. Now, he’s turned his talent toward teaching his
skills to others. If Rosie becomes his student, he hopes she can learn how to
be a stronger, focused, better person.

Some people are born to fight – in the
cage and out – and Rosie is one of them. When she’s given the moniker Rosie the Ripper, she becomes something
more than she was before – and it may be enough to give her a fighting chance …

Monday, January 6, 2014

WRITING FIGHT CARD MMA: ROSIE THE RIPPERSAM HAWKENI’m a
pretty visual person. When I was younger, I wanted to direct movies and only
gave up that dream when I discovered making movies required large amounts of
money, which I never had. Far, far cheaper to make paper movies out of words. And
so it goes.When Paul
Bishop first announced the Fight Card MMA line, he posted a picture of a
mock-up cover done by Fight Card artist Keith Birdsong. The cover was a
dynamic image of a woman in mid-punch and the title was Rosie the Ripper.
Seeing this got me thinking. It was that visual part of my brain going to work.I’d been
aware of the Fight Card series and read a few, but it wasn’t until I saw
Rosie and those magic letters, MMA, pop up that I felt I could actually write
one of these things. A long-dormant novel idea about a boxer in Baltimore never
really seemed to get anywhere, but Rosie the Ripper kept asking for my
attention as the weeks and months went by until finally her storyline came
springing into my head, ready to be written.Mixed
martial arts hits some strange, buried sweet spot even boxing – a sport I’ve
followed for decades – has never managed to touch. There’s something about the mixed
part of mixed martial arts that
really gets me interested, as there are so many technical elements that go into
the execution of a successful fight. Boxing is intricate and far more complex
than non-fans give it credit for, but MMA is a whole other level. Striking,
clinching, grappling, submissions – it goes on and on. And for me,
anyway, some of the most interesting MMA is happening with women fighters.There
have been female boxers for time out of mind, but MMA has integrated women into
the sport in a much more organic way. Rosie the Ripper was my chance to
translate some of that feminine energy into an action-packed fight story. But
I’d go one better and place a layer of drama over the raw physicality. Drama
geared specifically toward family, personal tribulations, and redemption.The very
best fight movie ever made is Rocky, and though Rocky Balboa was a gofer
for a small-time loan shark, his story was never about crime. It was about
heart. There was his relationship with Adrian and Mickey, and his struggle to
actualize himself as a person. I didn’t think I could reach those
Oscar-winning heights, but I could at least try to create a human portrait of a
woman and her life in MMA.Rosie
Bratton is a fighter – a given in a Fight Card tale – but she comes to
her fight the long way round. Divorced, with a young daughter she only sees on alternate
weekends, Rosie’s first real battle is with the bottle. When her custody
struggles with her successful ex-husband turn sour, she feels a renewed pull
toward drink.Her AA
sponsor, Felix Treviño, recognizes the signs and know she needs something on
which to focus her disparate energies. Once upon a time, in another life, Felix
was an MMA contender, and he has turned his skill toward training others like
his niece, Tina. For Felix, MMA is not only a path toward physical strength,
but also toward mental toughness and stability.He believes MMA training is what Rosie desperately needs.I believe
in fight training’s ability to form positive connections in a person’s life. I’m
in my forties now and pretty much settled, but there was a time when I was not
so old and not so settled, and for a time I took solace in learning to box. I
was never any good, and I never progressed to the point where I was even
safe to be in the ring sparring with another human being, but I did learn and I
did feel better. In the intervening years, I’ve wished I’d stuck with it,
because as a body slides into middle age the spirit is willing, as they say,
but the flesh is weak.From time
to time, I’ll see an advertisement on the side of the road for some Brazilian
jiu-jitsu place.There is also a gym
right down the road from me, which sponsors actual, honest-to-goodness
professional MMA fighters. I sometimes consider these things and I wonder if
maybe there’s enough gas left in the tank to roll with the young guys and learn
a thing or two. Then I remember I get winded eating a particularly large salad
and the thought is whisked away.One thing
a guy like me can do, however, is read and write about the sport. I’m
heavily into it in a way I wasn’t just a few years ago – and I pay particular
attention to WMMA. I spend a surprising amount of my time keeping up with
developments in the mixed martial arts world, so I suppose it was inevitable I
would write something like Rosie the Ripper, even if Paul Bishop hadn’t
done me such a big favor by posting that cover so long ago.I see
fight fiction as a natural extension of fandom. There was time in the ‘30s and
‘40s when boxing was very much a mainstream sport. However, when men (and it
was mostly men) weren’t watching boxing matches or reading The Ring,
they were snapping up pulps written by authors like Robert E. Howard. Sports
fiction of all sorts was big back then’Along with boxing there were pulp magazines for baseball and football –
and even basketball. No one thought it was odd to read such things.Now,
though, things are different. The pulps of yesteryear have all gone away. Football
fans don’t read Football Action anymore and Baseball Stories
doesn’t exist. There are still those who seek out these old entertainments on
eBay or at estate sales, but by and large, the pastime of reading fiction about
favorite sports has died. There is
no good reason for this to be the case. I expect Paul Bishop and Mel Odom, who
inaugurated the Fight Card brand, feel much the same way. Why not
bring back the old days, but with a new twist?Like fashion, everything old can be new again …If I’m
any example of this, you can use me to prove the point: people will read sports
fiction if it’s made available. And, as combat sports like MMA grow in
visibility and popularity, now is the perfect time to introduce
enthusiasts to the pleasure of fight stories. There’s no one to tell anyone
it’s wrong, bad or weird to extend their enjoyment of MMA or boxing into their
reading lives. In this respect, Fight Card is doing both fighting sports
and fiction a huge service.I now get
to be a part of it all – and Rosie does, too. Alongside the various bruisers
and brawlers of the Fight Card family, this determined single mother has
punched her way into her own story. And I get to do something I love: write
about fun stuff. Sure, I know MMA can be vicious and bloody, but it’s also full
of great yarns about heart, perseverance and triumph. And that’s just the real
fighters! The situation goes into overdrive once the fictioneers get involved
in the process.That
cover of Rosie the Ripper gave me the first inkling of an idea that
maybe I could do this. Maybe I could write the sort of thing fight fans would
enjoy. I’d made my bones with bleak, despairing crime fiction, but here was
something altogether different. I could
stretch myself in ways I hadn’t done before, could balance on a high wire
strung between action and drama with no net underneath. I could write about
hope and the unbreakable spirit of a fighter. Aren’t these the kinds of things
that draws all of us to the cage or the ring? We want to see the punches and
the kicks and the vicious submission holds, but we also want to know two people
are giving their all to fight three rounds and come away victorious. Two real,
flesh-and-blood people who have all their dreams tied up in the moment when the
referee raises their hand.So maybe
I pulled it off. Maybe I didn’t. The point is, I gave it my best shot. I worked
hard, I visualized the victory and, when the time came, I threw those punches
just as hard and as fast as I could. I may not ever do so much as exchange
pitter-pat strikes with another MMA student on the mats in some gym, but I feel
like I stood beside a woman who did that and more. Rosie’s triumphs are my
triumphs, her failures my own. I imagine pretty much any writer in the Fight
Card stable would say the exact same thing about their protagonists. That’s
the thing about fight fans: we put ourselves at the end of those punches.And as it
happens, I think Rosie the Ripper might also make a pretty good movie. I’m
available to direct.FIGHT CARD MMA: ROSIE THE RIPPER Baltimore, 2014 ... Rosie Bratton is a
recovering alcoholic. Divorced, working a dead end job, and with a young
daughter she only sees on alternate weekends, her life is going nowhere. Her hopes hang on the outcome of a custody
battle to regain primary custody of her daughter, and the vague possibility
things might get better together.When circumstances turn bleak, Rosie nearly
retreats into the bottle, but her sponsor has a solution. Felix was once a
mixed martial arts contender. Now, he’s turned his talent toward teaching his
skills to others. If Rosie becomes his student, he hopes she can learn how to
be a stronger, focused, better person.Some people are born to fight – in the cage and
out – and Rosie is one of them. When she’s given the moniker Rosie the Ripper,
she becomes something more than she was before – and it may be enough to give
her a fighting chance …

AVAILABLE NOW ~ FIGHT CARD MMA: ROSIE THE
RIPPER!SAM HAWKEN WRITING AS JACK TUNNEY Baltimore,
2014 ... Rosie Bratton is a recovering alcoholic. Divorced, working a dead end
job, and with a young daughter she only sees on alternate weekends, her life is
going nowhere. Her hopes hang on the
outcome of a custody battle to regain primary custody of her daughter, and the
vague possibility things might get better together.When
circumstances turn bleak, Rosie nearly retreats into the bottle, but her
sponsor has a solution. Felix was once a mixed martial arts contender. Now, he’s
turned his talent toward teaching his skills to others. If Rosie becomes his
student, he hopes she can learn how to be a stronger, focused, better person.Some
people are born to fight – in the cage and out – and Rosie is one of them. When
she’s given the moniker Rosie the Ripper,
she becomes something more than she was before – and it may be enough to give
her a fighting chance …

COMING THIS WEEK! FIGHT CARD MMA: ROSIE THE RIPPER!SAM HAWKEN WRITING AS JACK TUNNEYBaltimore,
2014 ... Rosie Bratton is a recovering alcoholic. Divorced, working a dead end
job, and with a young daughter she only sees on alternate weekends, her life is
going nowhere. Her hopes hang on the
outcome of a custody battle to regain primary custody of her daughter, and the
vague possibility things might get better together.When
circumstances turn bleak, Rosie nearly retreats into the bottle, but her
sponsor has a solution. Felix was once a mixed martial arts contender. Now, he’s
turned his talent toward teaching his skills to others. If Rosie becomes his
student, he hopes she can learn how to be a stronger, focused, better person.Some
people are born to fight – in the cage and out – and Rosie is one of them. When
she’s given the moniker Rosie the Ripper,
she becomes something more than she was before – and it may be enough to give
her a fighting chance …